L e n s V i e w s

A view on Blu-ray and DVD video by Leonard Norwitz

Introduction: I first noticed that some movies were actually "films" back around
1960 when I saw Seven Samurai (in the then popular truncated version),
La Strada and
The Third Man for the first time. American classics were a later and
happy discovery.

My earliest teacher in Aesthetics was Alexander Sesonske, who encouraged the
comparison of unlike objects. He opened my mind to the study of art in a broader
sense, rather than of technique or the gratification of instantaneous events. My
take on video, or audio for that matter – about which I feel more competent – is
not particularly technical. Rather it is aesthetic, perceptual, psychological
and strongly influenced by temporal considerations in much the same way as
music. I hope you will find my musings entertaining and informative, fun,
interactive and very much a work in progress.

When talkies began to take hold in the early 1930s, movie
studios found ready material in literature. If it was a
popular or classic novel it was fair game to give voice to
this awesome invention. Now that computer-generated effects
have become commonplace, movie producers scour the comics
for material. Wanted was perhaps the most popular
independently produced series of graphic novels produced in
the last ten years. I say this as if I knew this before I
watched the movie and delved into its many bonus features.
But I hadn't – and now wish that I had. From the artwork
reproduced here, the original comic is one dynamite, if
psychiatrically certifiable, piece of work.

Wanted is the creation of Scottish artist Mark Millar (see:
HERE) where it looks like the graphic novel is still
in print.) Millar is on hand in the extra features to
comment on the transition to feature film. Realizing that
vision is Kazakhstan director Timur Bekmambetov whose sci-fi
fantasy film, Night Watch, gained international attention in
2004. The comments in the extra features on this disc by
cast, producer and crew in praise of Bekmembetov's
imaginative vision tend to get a bit thick, as expected for
these things, but I have to admit there is some novel
creative thinking at work here – and it works at all three
levels: dazzling special effects, support of character and
respect for its comic book origins.

The Movie: 7.5
Lowly, anxious, tormented accounts manager, Wesley Gibson
(James McAvoy) is suddenly thrust into a world of
super-assassins when he is told by the cool, sleek Angelina
Jolie that his father, whom Wesley thought he had lost when
he was an infant, was killed only that morning. He is also
informed that this same father was the best of the best in
the assassin business and that what made this possible were
certain inheritable traits – traits, that up till now
manifested in Wesley only as heightened anxiety - and that
he, too, had acquired. They only needed bringing to the fore
and honed into a killer like his father with the help of Ms.
Angelina (aka Fox) and her covert cadre of gifted assassins,
led by the sage and wily Sloane (Morgan Freeman.) You can
imagine the duality of attraction and aversion such a
possibility might set up for our Wesley. One of the joys
that Wanted has in store is watching how McAvoy, who is a
walking time bomb here, moves between these opposing demands
until he becomes what he must – a finely tuned killing
machine, sans costume or special makeup.

It seems that a thousand years ago, a group of weavers
learned how to interpret the secrets of the Loom of Fate.
They formed a Fraternity of Assassins that received
instructions from the Loom about who should be killed in
order to maintain a righteous balance of power in the world.
Wesley is told that one of the Fraternity's group went rogue
and has been killing off its members - among them, his
father. Wesley must learn the ways of The Force in order to
set things right. (This is a comic book, remember, where
nerds and geeks become superheroes, and the Hitlers of the
world are never targets.)

Image:
9/9 NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were ripped directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
The first number indicates a relative level of excellence
compared to other Blu-ray video discs on a ten-point scale.
The second number places this image along the full range of
DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Wanted is granted a full-blooded image in rich, saturated
color with no distracting artifacts or blemishes. The blacks
are deep, yet yield sufficient information in the shadows.
The high end is never blown away. The movie was shot on film
(in Prague, as a stand-in for Chicago) and that look is
honored and maintained. Except for the episode with the
mountain train, where the effects dominate reality, this is
demonstration quality stuff.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio & Music:
8/7
What with Wesley's frequent echoic screaming and bullets
streaming in slow motion, bending this way and that, there
is ample opportunity for sound engineers to create a mix
that would be the envy of your friends. The uncompressed DTS
HD-MA mix is dynamic and unambiguous in its intentions:
dialogue is focused and clear, and surround effects are
properly located. You might find yourself ducking a couple
of times – if not from bullets, then from the rats.

Operations:
7
Universal has opted for not trying to reinvent the menu
wheel for every Blu-ray that comes along – and for this, I
give them points for sanity and courage. I also happen to
like the menu design, though I feel that U-Control in
general is a little labor intensive: it may be a case of a
complex technical solution where a simpler solution might
have served the user just as well. On the other hand, people
who enjoy video games would probably find its multitasking
interactivity familiar and desirable.

On a different note, may I put in my plea that there be a
uniform placement code adopted for the feature film. DVD
never got around to this – and worse, often did not
distinguish the feature from bonus materials clearly on the
disc. My preference is for the right side, but one or the
other, and never hiding behind a card, please.

Extras:
8
All but one of the extra features are in HD, which makes for
an inviting, easy on the eyes experience. The titles are
fairly self-explanatory - but a few notes, why not: In Cast
and Characters, director Timur and artist Millar are on hand
to add their two cents, along with the principal actors, in
respect to casting and their characters. In Groundbreaking
Visual Effects we learn that the effects are shipped back to
and managed by Timur's Russian company, Bazelev. It's nice
to see how these effects are done in such well-lit HD. In
Wanted: The Motion Comics, we are treated to beautiful
renderings of eight scenes from the graphic novel, showing
how they are translated into corresponding episodes in the
movie. The Making of Wanted: The Game is an extended,
effective promo piece for Universal/GRIN of the video game
based on the movie.

Through the Eyes of Visionary Timur Bekmambetov is as much a
commentary on Timur's creative process and methods by others
as much as the director himself. We hear from the film's
producer, cast members and artist Mark Millar. Timur is a
hands-on director – he appears to know what he wants, yet
engages his cast in the process. He has one comment worth
repeating, as it informs much of his work here and
elsewhere: "Life is dark, but humor is humor."

In place of a commentary as such, Universal makes ample use
of U-Control, the most relevant part of which is the
Picture-in-Picture feature. While PIP incorporates some of
what is covered in the separate extra features, it does go
over new ground, and in the context of the film.

Bottom line:
9
In what feels like Fight Club meets Yoda meets Spiderman
(without the suit or the fibres), Timur Bekmambetov turns
Mark Millar's graphic novel into a space-bending piece of
cinema wizardry. James McAvoy (Last King of Scotland;
Atonement) may surprise you in this persona (I thought he
was every bit as good as Mr. Whitaker in the first film, but
this is way different.) The blu-ray is
awesome in every respect. The movie itself may not be to
everyone's taste any more than any form of pulp fiction that
glorifies murderous villains – but taking it for what it is
. . .